Archive for February, 2012

Aaaannd the next ones =D The Brit Awards. Saw them for the first time in 2008 and never wanted to miss them again since then.
It’s been a great show yesterday, my favourite so far I think. Lots of great performances and most of the winners really deserve their awards, so no disappointment here, haha.

Coldplay kicked off the show with an awesome performance of Charlie Brown. All these fireworks looked spectacular and Chris sounded great, way better than at the Grammys. He also played piano during Noel Gallaghers performance, nice to see them on stage together. Florence + the machine and Adele were awesome as well.

Coldplay were nominated for Best British Group and Best British Album and they won the first one :) Really happy for them (and Chris didn’t even fuck up the acceptance speech, haha). As expected, Best British Album went to Adele. Her speech (or the lack thereof) was the only low moment of the night – James Corden was made to cut her off before she even said anything other than “Thank you”, just because the programme was over-running. No idea who’s responsible for that but it’s so so lame. When a live programme is over-running in Germany it just says “The news are delayed by 15 minutes” on the screen, simple as that. Adele’s reaction was flipping them off, hahaha.

Blur then closed the show with a 5 song set, after they won the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award earlier. Well deserved I think, and even though Damon didn’t seem to be on top form (and looked like he’s gonna lose his trousers any second), I really enjoyed them, especially Tender with the gospel choir:

But I connect one great music related thing with this day so I thought I’d share it here.

Three years ago today I randomly stumbled upon a Youtube video and instantly fell in love with it. Snow Patrol are covering an Elbow song for the Live Lounge on Radio 1. That doesn’t sound too exciting but I can’t remember a song that captivated me this much at first listen. I remember sitting awestruck in front of my computer, thinking “Wow, how beautiful is this”.
Guy Garvey’s lyrics, Garys voice, the string section, Gary conducting :D, everyone singing in canon at the end… turn off the lights and listen for yourself:

I’ve listened to this so many times now in the last three years and it still gives me goosebumps and makes me so happy.

Just like last year I stayed up the whole night to watch the Grammy Awards – was definitely worth it! It’s one of the few things on German telly I actually watch. As I said before, I love award shows and it doesn’t get better than the Grammys.
I don’t think I can write an actual review of the ceremony, so I thought I’ll just write down my thoughts during the show.

2am German time: Here we go! Bruce Springsteen is opening, awesome. I’m sure Chris Martin has to keep his inner fanboy in check right now, haha. There’s Paul McCartney sitting in the first row.. oh and Coldplay are right behind him, nice.

A prayer for Whitney Houston, very touching.

Bruno Mars is playing now, entertaining and funny as always. Is that Katy Perry in the audience? Oh dear, that tan just looks ugly.

Time for the first Grammy – Best Pop Solo Performance. Everyone’s shouting “Adele!” haha. They’re right with that one, no surprises there.

Ohhh, Coldplay and Rihanna time! I’m so excited for this. Okay, seems like it’s Rihanna only at first.. We Found Love sounds quite good but c’mon, we want Princess Of China!
… and here’s Chris with an acoustic guitar. Man, I thought they were gonna rock out to the song with a full band performance and then we only get an acoustic version?! That’s lame. Chris sounds good but what’s up with Rihanna? Sounds like she’s out of breath. That’s even more lame. She’s touring around the world playing 2 hour concerts every night but here she can’t sing two songs in a row?

Oh well. Coldplay are playing Paradise now. I wish they’d play Charlie Brown but since Paradise is on that Grammy Nominees Album, it seems to be the better choice. The glowing wristbands look cool but not as cool as during CB :P Chris looks good though. I bet he’s wearing make-up, haha. Paradise isn’t their strongest song live, but I thought it sounded fine. And I just love to see my boys on TV.

Next category is Best Rock Performance, Coldplay are nominated. Whenever one of my favourite bands is up for an award, I always sit with crossed fingers in front of the TV, going “Coldplay, Coldplay, Coldplay”=D Doesn’t help this time though, Foo Fighters win the Grammy. I can live with that, especially because of Dave’s accepting speech.“The human element of making music is what’s most important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing. It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer, it’s about what goes on in here [points to his heart] and it’s about what goes on in here [points to his head]“. Well said Mr Grohl.

Maroon 5 and Foster The People are playing a tribute to The Beach Boys, sounds great (and Adam Levine looks hot). Are Chris and Jonny standing on their chairs? =D
The reunited Beach Boys are playing together with FTP and M5 now, looks like everyone had a blast. Love moments like this.

Not that keen on Taylor Swift though, that whole Country theme just looks ridiculous.

Great to see Neil Patrick Harris! He’s presenting the Song of the Year award, which also goes to Adele. Lady Antebellum (who won five Grammys last year) win Best Country Album. Well, one more can’t hurt eh.

Gwyneth Paltrow is introducing Adele now, her first live performance since her throat surgery. I was really looking forward to it… and wow, she sounds brilliant. What a perfect moment, it’s great that she’s back.

Time to remember the musicians who died last year, followed by a tribute to Whitney Houston by Jennifer Hudson. Beautiful.

David Guetta, Foo Fighters and deadmau5 get the party going again. And then “the performance everyone will talk about tomorrow” (as they announced a billion times) by Nicki Minaj. Ummm yeah. I can’t see how anyone will have to say much about that other than What. The. Fuck.

Adele wins Record of the Year and then the big one, Album of the Year. With the ones given out in the Pre-Telecast Ceremony that’s six awards in total. I’m really happy for her, all well deserved. And I forgot that Ryan Tedder produced some songs on her album, nice surprise seeing him on stage.

5.20am German time: The grand finale, Paul McCartney is joined on stage by Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl. The Grammys couldn’t have ended on a better note.
Time to go to bed now!